If ever South Africa has embarrassed itself then it has to be on the Caster Semenya issue.
Here I’m not referring to ASA boss Leonard Chuene, who has made a total idiot out of himself by carrying on a lie in the face of the terrible things we were saying about the international community and each other, but rather the claims of racism which were made both locally and abroad.
Not only did we have Malema ranting on about whites not supporting a black athlete but we made the most disgusting allegations against an IAAF that supported the masses of this country in the fight against racism during apartheid.
This was not knee-jerk time; it was losing your leg from the whiplash that any suggestions of a Semenya banning occasioned.
The fact that other athletes of all races have had to call time on their careers in the past was lost on our lot. We stamped our feet, ranted and raged and then reported it to the United Nations.
To say we have mud on our face has to be the understatement of the year.
If Barack Obama is able to tell the American people that the backlash on healthcare reform is driven by policy issues and not racism as some former peanut farmer is alleging, then so too must we be open-minded enough to first examine an issue on its own merits before rambling on about side issues such as racism.
Too often in South Africa we miss the debate for the collateral garbage and this has got to stop.
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